REVIEW: Prodigy #1 'is blockbuster comic making, pure and simple'

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Prodigy #1 is out 12/3.

By Bo Stewart — Last month Mark Millar gave us this gem of a tweet, I’m calling it now: the actor who gets the part of Edison Crane in Prodigy will be the biggest star of the next decade. A combo of Sherlock, Bruce Wayne, Indy & Bond, this is THE BIG ONE. A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME role. Now, Millar is probably the biggest self-promoter in comics…but holy s#*%. Pretty brash. Biggest star of the next decade is obviously an impossibly high bar, but after reading Prodigy #1, I can kind of understand why Millar is drawing those comparisons.

With these new Netflix books, Millar has been aiming higher than ever before. If the Magic Order, the first of the titles, is supposed to be the new Harry Potter, Prodigy aims to be the new James Bond. Main protagonist, Edison Crane, takes Sherlock's mind, Bond's street savvy, Indy's sense of adventure and combines them into a single character. This is a book that takes the photographic memory trope and pushes it to an extreme I haven’t seen before. Edison is outrageously good at everything. He’s a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, an Olympic athlete, an accomplished diplomat, a successful business owner, a…you get the picture. And this first issue deftly shows several occasions where he uses his skills. It’s overkill, sure, but that’s kind of the point.

Edison is a guy who can do literally anything…so why does he feel empty? That’s the conflict at the heart of this title. Edison has nothing to prove to anyone, so why does he continually feel the need to prove things to himself? These will be the central questions of the series and really the main focus of the book. Will Edison go on globetrotting adventures? Yes. Will he liaison with the government about possible alien invasions? Of course. But that’s not really what this book is about. Millar is disguising an exploration of the emptiness of the human condition as a high-flying action comic. Frankly, I’m into it.

This first issue is mostly a scene setter. We know what Edison is capable of accomplishing, and we know what keeps him up at night. What we don’t know is the specific direction this series is going to go next. The premise offers an unlimited amount of storytelling opportunities, and while this could cause a lack of focus in many stories, for Prodigy it’s a strength. With a flawed character at its center, Prodigy can take the reader anywhere in the world and keep us invested in Edison’s journey as a person. This is the same reason we come back to characters like Bond and Sherlock over and over again.     

The other major draw of these new Millar books is the unparalleled art. Olivier Coipel set the tone with the ridiculously gorgeous Magic Order, and Rafael Albuquerque ensures Prodigy maintains that high quality. This is blockbuster comic making, pure and simple.      

Overall: Prodigy is another wildly ambitious book from Mark Millar. While all the action and intrigue are well executed, the book’s main draw of is the emptiness of main character Edison Crane. I can’t wait to see where this goes. 9.0/10

Prodigy #1
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Peter Doherty
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

Bo grinds for the man by day so he can create comics by night. He is the lesser half of the Stewart Brothers writing team and can be found on Twitter and Instagram @stewart_bros

REVIEW: Die #1 is a MAJOR debut Image Comic

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Die #1 is out 12/5.

By Zack Quaintance — Many comics—often comics I like—start with explosions or death or some kind of absolutely nuts narrative hook...often before we know anything at all about the characters. I understand wanting to open with excitement, like most films or TV shows, but the thing about a comic is the engagement comes slower. There is room, in my opinion, to be both intriguing and smart.

Readers (obviously) must turn the pages, making time pass as they process what’s happening in a deliberate way, deciding for themselves whether protagonists deserve interest or sympathy. With TV or movies, time passes irrepressibly, automatically engendering interest in whatever character an audience sees most (usually). Anyway, my point is that Die #1 is slow and patient at its start, giving us brief quiet time to meet our characters—and, more importantly—to like our characters before the stakes and action and magic begins. It does this, and does it well, and the effect is very engrossing, a comic that reads like a smart fantasy story for adults interested in thorough self-reflection (more on that later).

Die #1 is an all around patient and assured debut, often feeling as if Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (what a combo, btw!) know just how good their comic is, how well-realized their characters, and how interested readers will be in their story. These creators, of course, do the narrative work necessary for fostering reasons to care, and they do it in a way that completely negates any sort of need for flashy trickery. There’s a pleasant lack of insecurity throughout this comic, a sense of freedom that shows through in the work.   

At the start, we’re given just enough info to know who our characters are and what they care about. When action does arrive, we’re in suspense, enthralled by the story’s mystery. There’s also an in-story reason some info is withheld. Basically, we know what that the characters’ know...until the characters don’t want us to (or, more accurately in this case, can no longer reveal certain things). The inherent mystery lends these proceedings a sense of grandiosity, doing wonders for Gillen’s writerly voice, which is generally quite strong (see another favorite of mine, The Wicked + The Divine).

The artwork is also absolutely wonderful. Hans excels at facial expressions, and she uses that gift to convey extra layers of meaning here. It’s one thing to draw a superhero wincing from an impact. Even without a clenched face, we get it—being blown up hurts. Hans uses expressions in Die for subtle inflections and added meaning, showing characters who may be saying one thing while feeling another. The conflict between the dialogue and appearances is both telling and true to life. Really, Hans attention to detail is just all around fantastic, applied to everything from shoes and to backgrounds, adding realism and making this story all the more absorbing.

Die #1 feels like a book its team has been thinking about for some time. It’s a fantasy story to be sure, delving into some familiar tropes (in the preview text, Gillen calls it goth Jumanji, which, perfect), but it’s also literary and smart. It’s not quite a deconstruction (not yet, anyway), yet it still seeks to approach the genre it operates withnin from a more intellectual place than is typical. Die #1 also incorporates RPGs directly into its plot in ways Stranger Things doesn’t. There’s a tendency in 2018 pop culture to fetishize D&D and the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. I haven’t seen another property do so as effectively as Die, though, which I think bodes well for its long-term viability. What also bodes well for this book is the complexity of its themes. A character says at one point: You have no idea how good this will be. This is fantasy for grown-ups. By the end of the issue, that quote sure does ring true.

Overall: One of the best debut Image Comics this year, which is saying a lot. Die #1 sees veteran writer Gillen operating in a story that demands to be told and also plays to the ample strengths of rising star artist Stephanie Hans. This book features nostalgia that fosters engagement without ever becoming a crutch. Read this comic, and enjoy. 9.5/10

Die #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Stephanie Hans
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man #10 is an emotional conclusion to another solid story arc

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Amazing Spider-Man #10 is out 11/28.

By Zack Quaintance — I’ve maybe written about this in past Amazing Spider-Man reviews, but I tend to view this title as Marvel’s vanguard book, its flagship, a barometer for how the publisher is doing as a whole (in much the same way Batman indicates what’s up at any given time with DC). This title re-launched in July after nearly a decade under one writer, Dan Slott, and in that decade, the book became a complex one, capable of pulling together months of patient storylines into mostly-satisfying and always-ambitious crescendos. Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man, to me, always felt urgent and dancing on the cusp of lasting change, even if the realities of corporate comics prevented that change from becoming permanent.

This new run, courtesy of writer Nick Spencer (Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Astonishing Ant-Man), has a different set of strengths, and while it’s still way way too soon to speculate which run will ultimately be better, Amazing Spider-Man #10 is a great example of this. In this issue, Spencer and his new direction do something well that was maybe a bit lacking in the Slott Spidey era. I’m talking specifically here about a small-yet-intensely-emotional character-driven moment that draws from Peter Parker’s long history rather than the events of the most recent issues.

Yes, in Amazing Spider-Man #10, Peter and Black Cat sit together on a rooftop after a wacky and outlandish superhero team up. This is familiar territory for Spencer, who uses the exhausted heroes on a ledge conversation fairly often, generally to great effect. I definitely remember at least one really well done such talk in Ant-Man that saw Darla Deering calling out Scott Lang on his shit. In fact, come to think of it, the rooftop conversation I enjoyed so much in this issue of Amazing Spider-Man was, to an extent, Black Cat calling Spidey on his shit, or at least being emotionally honest in a way that gave him a choice between ignoring her suffering or being a good guy (he picks being a good guy).

I won’t give away the exact nature of the conversation or of Peter’s choice. I will, however, note that it sort of brings back an element that had been missing from the Spider-Man mythos in recent years, his long history with Black Cat and how it’s affected them both. In some ways, through the first 10 issues (nearly a year by traditional comics standards), returning missing elements to the Spider-Man mythos has been the bedrock of this new run, with the biggest of course being Peter’s relationship with Mary Jane. With that noted, it’s perhaps poetic that memory was a theme in Peter’s conversation with Black Cat, because one can only assume it will again come into play as the story more directly unpacks Peter and Mary Jane getting back together. Basically, it seems like some thematic foreshadowing is being done here, and being done well.

Speaking of Mary Jane, the other primary strength of this individual issue was her secondary arc (or maybe it was primary? I think it may have been…) in which she attends a support group for the significant others of super-powered beings and ultimately takes a step toward healthy independence within her relationship. It’s an emotionally nuanced storyline, and, as with the exchange on the rooftop, Spencer’s scripting handles it well. I’ll note one more time that it’s early, but part of this run’s success so far seems to be a death by 1,000 cuts approach to the narration, stacking little humanizing moments upon each other in a way that enables the book to hit big emotional beats (as in this issue) when it needs to. If this is how it feels after 10 issues, I’m curious to see where we’ll be at after 20-plus, or, cynically, whether or not the team can maintain it.

Overall: Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man run continues to find a cruising altitude with this emotionally-satisfying conclusion to a storyline that saw our hero teaming up with Black Cat. Perhaps more promisingly, the book seems bent on enshrining Mary Jane Watson less of a supporting character and more of a co-star right at the heartfelt center of the action. 9.0/10

Amazing Spider-Man #10
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artists: Humberto Ramos and Michele Bandini
Inker: Victor Olazaba and Michele Bandini
Colorists: Edgar Delgado and Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: These Savage Shores #2 doubles down on the series’ strengths

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These Savage Shores #2 is out 11/28.

By Zack Quaintance — In These Savage Shores #1, Ram V. used the narration in a way that stuck with me for the month-plus between issues, specifically the sea captain’s prose, in which he wrote of his ship’s destination: They’ve no use for lords or nobles ‘ere. In this place, the days are scorched and long. And the nights are full of teeth.” I don’t often like a book (or any story, really) to so directly state its central conceit, but it was done poetically here (and also in the service of foreshadowing), done so well I couldn’t help but appreciate it. That first issue was also confident in its artistry, dedicating whole pages to tone-setting imagery from Sumit Kumar and Vittorio Astone, panels of suns setting behind ominous trees, beady eyes in crevices, entire colonies of bats taking flight at dusk. Overall, the first issue of this comic was luscious and immersive, and, excuse my inelegance, good.

These Savage Shores #2 builds well upon the foundation lain by its predecessor. Let’s start by talking (briefly) of the plot, which relies heavily once again upon the writing of a letter as a framing device. This time, the writer is a character we met briefly before, a vampire hunter who encountered the now-deceased Alain Pierrefont as he tore into a victim, lighting the monster aflame, ultimately sending him fleeing across the sea to India. That vampire hunter’s name is Zachariah (great name), and he has, apparently followed Pierrefont to these savage shores, finding him dead and setting off in search of the killer, whom he assumes is also a monster.

That’s where we start. It’s a premise that makes for a sophomore issue even more engrossing than its predecessor. By framing These Savage Shores #2 through a character we saw (albeit briefly) last issue, Ram V. and team strongly orient the reader while at once stoking the intensity of the mystery the first installment ended upon. Using the hunter is a wise choice. Like his original prey, he’s a stranger in a strange land, one we can’t help but feel is intruding in this area. If These Savage Shores seeks in any way to be a commentary on imperialism, this is a strong way to go about it.

What’s more though, is that the letter writing motif evokes the idea of a story being told within a story. Not directly, but These Savage Shores seems to aspire to be a deeper commentary on imperialism. What the letter writing obliquely eludes to (at least in my mind, and, granted, I may be making a major leaps) is that this comic is interested in unpacking the continued telling of stories about imperialism, specifically those told through heroes and protagonists intruding in one way or another. To be sure, These Savage Shores #2 has far more interests in that, lighting upon mythology, obsessions, the economics of trade, and class structure, but the subversion of who we thought our central character was in issue one is continued and continued well throughout issue 2, a strong and inspired bit of plotting.

The art, however, is yet again stunning in this comic, especially the depiction of the child prince’s protector when he puts on his mask (which is used thematically by the script, too). The silent closeups of the masked man locking onto strange visitors have at times made me run cold with terror. Like the first issue, These Savage Shores #2 is again a confident visual story, one content to linger within large and sweeping establishing shots, somehow doing so without bogging down the pacing in the slightest. I wrote about this in my review of These Savage Shores #1, but the writer, artist, colorist combo on this title are working in sync, expertly fostering tone and mood that serves the story as well as any comic in recent memory.

Overall: These Savage Shores #2 doubles down on the strengths of the excellent debut that preceded it, simultaneously finding new and interesting ground beyond the misdirective twist that ended its first issue. A delightfully complex comic, this book is one for readers who enjoy nuanced explorations of ideas as well as those who want to revel in dark and chilling visual tones. 9.0/10

These Savage Shores #2
Writer: Ram V.
Artist: Sumit Kumar
Colorist: Vittorio Astone
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: The Warning #1 is slow, hopefully by design

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The Warning #1 is out 11/28.

By Zack Quaintance — The Warning #1 begins with a heavily-stylized opening, rich with hints of anime or manga storytelling aesthetics. Fans of Sean Gordon Murphy should take note, because the art in The Warning (from this opening onward) is perhaps best described as like Murphy’s stuff if it were thoroughly sharpened and rendered by a team of modern video game designers. Simply put, the art in this book looks good.

As it should. The Warning #1 is the work of writer/artist Edward Laroche, and, indeed, the art is rarely lacking here. The writing is assured, no question, but it’s definitely the weaker of the two. There’s also a military coldness that is perhaps here by design. Still, it makes the characters and the early plot points in this debut issue tough to gloam onto, at least at the beginning. The earliest dialogue in The Warning is a harsh mix of military call numbers and other terminology, some medical jargon, a bunch of profanity. It doesn’t exactly say, hey there, reader...welcome! But this also isn’t that kind of book.

This is a good-looking and massively MASSIVELY decompressed comic. One where very little happens in the first 20 pages aside from a soldier boarding a plane bound on a mission while elsewhere a woman in a luxurious house hears that presumably that same mission has the potential to save the planet. Also, she does a line of coke. To be frank, it doesn’t make for the most riveting debut, playing as it does more like a storyboard for a hard sci-fi movie directed by Quentin Tarantino…before any of the violence starts.

What it seems to do well, however, is promise that when the action does arrive, it will have been worth the wait. Essentially, The Warning #1 is a first issue clearly written for trade, a patient and perhaps slow-moving-to-a-fault debut that looks great as it shuffles a whole lot of pieces into place. There’s a bit of poetic reincarnation dialogue that just didn’t click for me. I do imagine, however, that some will find it incredibly meaningful. For my part, however, I’ll be waiting to pass final judgement on this title until we get to see its pretty artwork conveying real action.

Overall: A good-looking debut, to be certain, but nothing much really happens in The Warning #1 other than vague setup for a potential alien invasion. This could very well be by design; the book feels pretty confident in its pacing. Really though, this seems like a comic clearly written for trade. As such, the strength of this first issue will be determined almost entirely by what comes next. 7.0/10

The Warning #1
Writer/Artist: Edward Laroche
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Jaymes Reed
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.


ADVANCED REVIEW: Livewire #1 is a great start for Valiant’s newest series

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Livewire #1 is out 12/19

By Toren Chenault — So far, 2018 has been a phenomenal year for comics. And it doesn’t seem to matter what you’re into. DC, Marvel, Image, AfterShock, BOOM! Studios...name a publisher, and they’ve had a hit this year. Valiant Comics is no different. Valiant Beyond is the new direction for the company, and as part of that direction comes a solo series for one of their most powerful characters.

Amanda McKee, aka Livewire, is an insanely powerful technopath who, just recently, shook up the Valiant Universe during the Harbinger Wars 2 summer event. Most characters now consider Livewire a villain, with very few still calling her a hero. As such, this is a series that comes at a crucial time for the character, and writer Vita Ayala and artists Raul Allen and Patricia Martin handle Livewire #1 with class, creating an emotional and introspective with a hook that makes you eager to learn more about Livewire.

This is Livewire’s first ongoing series. She’s a character who’s been featured in Valiant since its relaunch in 2011 and has subsequently gone through one of the best character arcs in all of comics, not just Valiant. She started off as a loyal student to billionaire and powerful Harbinger, Toyo Harada. Then, she became a superhero and team leader of a group called Unity. And recently, she became a resistance leader with her Secret Weapons team. But that came with a cost. Livewire, using her powers, turned off the power grid of the entire United States. And not everyone came out okay. This new series now serves as great jumping on point for readers as they learn about who Amanda is, while for existing fans, this book is about the the long-awaited fallout from Livewire’s actions in Harbinger Wars 2.

The highlight of Livewire #1 comes from Amanda’s characterization. She’s a weird person. She grew up isolated from the world and was indoctrinated by Toyo Harada. Over the years, she grew past that, but she still never had much of a social life or many friends. Livewire #1 dives into her weird personality and balances it with her love of her team, The Secret Weapons, who are essentially three kids that Livewire helped and trained to become better psiots. The relationship between Amanda and her team is a special one, and one that Ayala does a good job of showing.

But like all relationships, they have their bad times, too, and the emotional core of this issue comes from Amanda confronting her team for the first time since leading her resistance in Harbinger Wars 2. Amanda had good reasons for starting another Harbinger War, but sometimes ends don’t justify the means. To me, this is where the issue truly shines, because Ayala constructs the dialogue in a way that makes readers sincerely care about characters in the moment. There’s also just enough background so that new readers won’t be confused, but rather eager to learn more about Amanda’s past.

The art duo on this comic is the rising star team of Raul Allen and Patricia Martin. Allen and Martin both worked on Secret Weapons with Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer, so they’re not new to Valiant. Their comfort with the characters shows in the art. Bold, detailed pencils and bright colors are some of the ways their art shines. Secret Weapons to me, was structured like a movie. The panels were arranged in a way that made the comic feel extremely fluid. Livewire #1 boast those same qualities.

Every page in the comic seems to have a transparent blue sheet over it as Martin’s colors provide a calming effect. I could write for hours on the quality of this art and just how well done it is, but the last thing that I’ll say is how beautiful they make Livewire look each time we see her. She has a presence, and every time she appears on the page you feel as if something big is about to happen. It’s this awesome combination of Allen’s detailed panel work, well-defined pencils, and Martin’s soft blends of blue, pink, and purple, that make this comic work so well .

Overall: I expected this comic to be a hit for me. It has a lot going on for it. What separates this from most superhero comics, though, is that Livewire is such an interesting character, one who hasn’t been explored too much yet. There’s a moment at the end of the issue that made me tear up because of the depth with which Ayala writes Amanda. And I was not expecting that. Given how this first issue ends, we’re in for a long ride with Livewire. And I can’t wait to take it. 9.5/10

Livewire #1
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Raul Allen
Colorist: Patricia Martin
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Publisher: Valiant Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Toren Chenault, a native of the Cincinnati area, currently lives in Michigan with his girlfriend. A graduate of Michigan State University, he is a long-time superhero fan who counts Captain Atom, Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Divinity, Nightwing, and XO Manowar among his favorite heroes. Mystic Man is his first book. Buy it now here.

REVIEW: Long Lost Part 2 #4 a story of longing becomes a story of suspense

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Long Lost Part 2 #4 is out 11/21.

By Zack Quaintance — Since Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle began their comic Long Lost, this story has felt like one of longing for the two principal characters, sisters Frances and Piper. When we first met them, Frances lived an almost hermetic lifestyle in a relatively clean and spare apartment, seeming to have little in her life other than her dog. Her sister Piper was more outgoing yet also more reckless, often to her detriment. They were both, perhaps, equally bothered to be estranged from their mother, their aunts, and, most importantly, from each other, even if they showed it in different ways.

There were also hints all along that the two characters were being herded by some sort of supernatural force, not quite a ghost and not quite a monster, a being (or beings, plural) that was not of any origin we could understand, putting forth machinations that made both the characters on the page and us, the real life readers of the book, wonder about the nature of this story’s reality, wonder what was true and what was paranormal. For the past two issues, though, the earlier slow-burning character drama has been dispensed with as the plot heads toward its conclusion and starts to tell us (or more accurately, starts to suggest) what has been happening all along.

The action has intensified in this comic, as have the dangers faced by the two protagonists, while the clarity has remained obscured. In fact, at one point in Long Lost Part 2 #4, one of the sisters blurts out a plot point, noting that her understanding of it could be wrong. It’s leading to a story rich with suspense and tension. I’ve experienced Long Lost as a mystery from the start, and for it to turn proscriptive now would be a disservice to all the issues that came before it. Instead, the creators here are making the wise choice to give us as readers almost exactly as much information as their protagonists have about what’s happening and why.

The result is a decidedly character-driven horror-tinged suspense story, one in which tone is used well to make readers feel fear and confusion, the level of emotional investment in each other’s fates too, that is being felt by the characters on the page. This has been a great year for comics that deal in such intense feelings, and, with its understated approach, Long Lost continues to be among the best.

Will we get answers before this is all through? Well, it certainly seems to depend on what ultimately happens to the lead characters. We know more than we did at the start. We know whom to trust and whom to approach with a level of caution. We know more about the state of the family, the reasons they’ve been driven apart. Most importantly, however, we know that the longing these sisters felt at the start of the story has been altered, that they are now both acutely aware of how much they’ve always meant to each other, and it’s that relationship that remains this book’s beating heart.

Overall: Long Lost continues to be a character-driven horror-tinged mystery with one of the most compelling and realistic emotional cores in all of comics. The action is rapidly intensifying, but the creators have wisely avoided changing the tone of the story to be too explanatory. The mystery remains as compelling as ever as Long Lost approaches its conclusion. 9.0/10

Long Lost Part 2 #4
Writer: Matthew Erman
Artist: Lisa Sterle
Publisher: Scout Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.


REVIEW: Middlewest #1 uses lonely Midwest magic to cast a captivating debut

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Middlewest #1 is out 11/21.

By Zack Quaintance — I’m from Chicago, but I spent a few years in rural Illinois, working as a reporter for small town newspapers in places like Carterville, Carbondale, and Peoria. Now, you probably don’t know where any of those towns are. Heck, I left Southern/Central Illinois 11 years ago, and I barely remember them. Writer Skottie Young and artist Jorge Corona’s Middlewest #1, however, brought me back. More than that, it made me see those rural Midwestern places I one knew well in a different sort of light.

Middlewest #1 is one of those comics that deals heavily in tone, doing so by burrowing deep into forlorn isolation that’s inherent to towns like Carterville, Illinois, towns that most folks only ever find themselves driving through if they take a wrong turn while coming off the highway for gas (and then another wrong turn, and then probably another one). What it finds when it does that burrowing is magic. Magic born from loneliness, from wind that never ceases, from the feeling that washes over you when you look alone to the horizon and see fields, infinite and vast and flatter than you ever thought possible.

What takes this comic from an interesting experiment in tone (one that resonates well with me personally) to a book I plan to follow through at least its first arc is the plot that the creators pair with the lonely Midwestern aesthetic. I don’t want to go into too many details, but Middlewest #1 is a story about a young boy with a callous and demanding father, all too ready to tip into cruelty when the opportunity presents itself. This in itself isn’t a particularly novel plot and it doesn’t have to be. Tropes become tropes because they work, because they’re such solid bricks to build a full house upon, and the house that Young and Corona build with their magic forged through introspection is an impressive one indeed. Also, there’s a talking fox that will probably continue to absolutely steal scenes (if not entire issues).

I heartily recommend this comic to all and any who have spent time in the rural Midwest, who have lived there or had family there, or really have ever just looked listlessly out the window as they drove through, wondering what life was like for the real people born into all that space. This comic might just have the answer.

Overall: Middlewest #1 is a story steeped in a lonely sort of magic born from writer Skottie Young’s deep familiarity with the rural Midwest. Artist Jorge Corona renders it with vast imagination, capturing a unique sort of forlorn tone that I never before realized was always present in those areas. 8.5/10

Middlewest #1
Writers: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.


REVIEW: Holy #%@&! Electric Warriors #1 is a good time

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Electric Warriors is out 11/14.

By Zack Quaintance — Whoa. This is an unreal book, like a neon fever dream in the head of the world’s foremost DC continuity scholar. Electric Warriors #1 by Steve Orlando and Travel Foreman is, quite simply, unlike any other Big 2 comic in recent memory, so unique is it in concept and tight with execution. We’ll get to both concept and execution in a moment, but let me first note this is a series I unabashedly recommend to all superhero fans, as well as most space opera and sci-fi readers, with extra points for those (like myself) with deep interest in DC continuity.

Okay then, let’s start with the concept: Electric Warriors is wisely set after Jack Kirby’s Great Disaster, a cataclysmic event of global proportions which eradicated civilized society on Earth-AD (according to one DC wiki). Earth-AD is essentially the normal DC Earth we know, with the AD standing for After Disaster, which means that Electric Warriors is set in an alternate DC future, one in which the galaxy is starting to get its sh*t together, presumably en route to more enlightened times that will later be home to The Legion, the United Planets, etc.

In this timeline, Earth is a somewhat late-comer to a burgeoning and (relatively) peaceful galactic order that averts war between major powers by having them all submit one champion (an electric warrior) who does combat powered by seeds that electrify their skills and abilities. All great cosmic powers have one champion, one, except Earth, which riven by tribal divisions insists on having two, one evolved animal and one human. This speaks to some powerful anthropologic notions about our civilization while at the same time extrapolating our long long history to a logical extreme. Essentially, Electric Warriors posits that even after an apocalypse and subsequent enlightened ascent, we still can’t get along, not entirely.

So that’s the concept, and it’s strong. I know the way I’ve explained it might seem convoluted, but upon reading the comic, it’s not at all, which is a credit to the work of Orlando and Foreman, and to the second facet of the book I’d like to discuss, it’s execution. First, Foreman’s artwork is stellar, used here to great effect to differentiate this story from usual DC superhero fare via a futuristic aesthetic, glowing and urgent and sharp. Foreman is as visionary an artist as is found in superhero comics, and he’s in full command of his formidable powers here.

Second, Orlando grounds this story so well in entirely new characters. His creations are dynamic and complex. Orlando is a writer perhaps most associated with revenge, but that signature thematic interest is absent here. Instead, characters are motivated in one case by duty and another by self loathing. Those motivations aren’t dwelled on much, which serves this complex narrative well, instead making brief appearances as catalysts to actions. Add in a major (and thrilling) reveal at the very end, and this is Orlando’s best work all year, perhaps even better than his recent run on Wonder Woman, all of which I liked quite a bit.

While DC fandom has largely focused on forthcoming runs like Grant Morrison and Liam Sharpe’s The Green Lantern, G. Willow Wilson and Cary Nord’s Wonder Woman, and Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha’s Aquaman, Electric Warriors has flown under the radar. I have a strong feeling that’s about to change.

Overall: Today is a major day for new comics, but if you take a chance on one new book, make it Electric Warriors. This is part one of a six-part miniseries with vast potential to be something truly special. Fans are going to be talking about this comic tomorrow. 9.5/10

Electric Warriors #1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Travel Foreman
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Friendo #2 makes good on the first issue’s intriguing promise

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Friendo #2 is out 11/14.

By Zack Quaintance — Before we talk Friendo #2, I think it’s worth a brief reminder of how the first issue ended...with a likely vagrant (who’s not the main character’s dad, but maybe?) stabbing our hero in the back before taking his wallet and remarking, Never look for meaning in a desert. Then a downed powerline flopped into our hero, electrocuting him so severely we saw his bones. Caught up? Good, because issue two picks up where the previous chapter ended (sort of): a desert in which its unwise to look for meaning.

Visually, I found the opening of Friendo #2 stunning, rendered by Martin Simmonds (with bright colors by Dee Cunniffe). I especially liked the placement of the first three panels and their contents: a setting sun, followed by a slightly lower lizard’s beady black eye, followed by a human eye within a face that’s clearly had its skin peeled. Next, we see said skinless human walking across the desert, almost surreal, like something from a film by Jodorowsky.

One could be forgiven for thinking our main character, Leo, was dead, but also, Friendo is a comic that won’t let the poor guy off that easy. So, soon we’re back in the near-future, where ambush marketers crash cars on purpose (incurring serious injury), paparazzi drones roam the skies evaluating who’s worth filming based on cold algorithms, and raging wildfires send ash into the air, always (sound familiar?). By the time we get past the ethereal opening and to the plot proper, the book is primed to delve into what’s really been its central concern from the start: unbridled and addictive consumerism (and its impact on the identity of the individuals it needs to exist).

Last issue, we saw Leo gifted a two-in-one anthropomorphic search engine and ride or die bestie—brand name, Friendo...individual name, Jerry—and in this issue we see the deeper nature of the insidious relationship that this marketing AI is forming with Leo, one in which he endears himself to our hero and trades actualization so as to foster a never-ending chain of purchases. But we learn as the plot continues that the AI’s power doesn’t stop there, that it’s so relentless in its marketing, it can also influence technology in the larger world, causing harm to other people if they threaten to get in its way.

This book, it should perhaps be noted, is from Vault Comics, and while the books put out by that publisher are disparate in theme and plot, the thing they share is it's tough to pin down their genres, be it Deep Roots, Submerged, or Fearscape. Friendo is cut from that same genre-bending cloth, but to me this issue firmly establishes it as horror, with the traditional monster or knife-wielding baddie played to subtle perfection by unstoppable (yet startlingly plausible) greed.

The villain here is basically late model capitalism at its skeeziest. One thing I particularly liked about this issue was that it twisted the idea of capitalism as a villain (which is being done all over now in this age of awful President Trump), and made it not as deliberate and overt as it could be. The capitalism-born antagonist in Friendo is not just a CEo, but rather a natural extension of CEO intent that has been turbocharged by a malfunction and deregulation as a corporate board looks the other way...which makes it even scarier and way more real.

Overall: As I noted in my review of Friendo #1, the debut of this series was loaded with intriguing potential. Friendo #2 makes good on that promise, crafting a near-future horror story that casts extreme capitalism and human indifference as its villains. It’s chilling stuff, laden with cautionary lessons for our times. 9.0/10

Friendo #2
Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Martin Simmonds
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Taylor Esposito

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Bitter Root #1 is a complex and fearless debut

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Bitter Root #1 is out 11/14.

By Zack Quaintance — There’s a roadmap for success in creator-owned comics that’s becoming standard: a writer and artist collaborate at Marvel or DC, they build a fanbase, and they go on to drop a new series at Image, one that as a result of their past work together arrives fully-formed. It’s happened this year with Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s Gideon Falls, and it’s happening again this week with David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene’s Bitter Root #1.

Walker and Greene last teamed on 2016’s Power Man and Iron Fist, which despite being one of the major highlights of Marvel’s All New, All Different publishing initiative, was tragically cancelled before reaching 20 issues, apparently because higher ups at the company decided Luke and Danny needed to be separated. To me this remains a silly move, but I digress...

We’re here to talk about Bitter Root #1, a debut comic that, simply put, knows exactly how good it is. It’s a confident book built for a lengthy run, and, as such, its first issue is mostly interested in orienting readers within its world (the Harlem Renaissance era), introducing them to characters (a family of monster hunters with rigidly-defined roles), hinting at a central conflict (a rift in said monster-hunting family), and planting seeds for future developments. First issues can sometimes fall into a sensationalistic trap wherein the creators push copious or excessive twists into the story, coming off as a bit desperate to bring readers back for #2.

Not so with Bitter Root, an immersive comic that relies on strong art and storytelling more than narrative tricks. It’s also as thoughtful a new title as we’ve seen this year (and it’s been a strong year for thoughtful titles). Like Walker’s work on books like Nighthawk, oppression and abuse of power loom large in Bitter Root. WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILERS: The story being historical lets this issue draw a connection between institutionalized racism and injustices that continue today. In one scene, a jumpy police officer opens fire on black characters in a park (having his bullets deflected by the story’s imaginative steampunk monster-hunting tech) before a monster rips him to pieces. In the next, we cut to Mississippi the same night...where another character is saved by similar tech from a lynching by the KKK.

The placement of these scenes in Bitter Root’s first issue to me seems to hint at the story’s aspirations: to interweave family, duty, monsters, and systemic racism, thereby creating an imaginative and complex narrative, as rich with character growth as it is with elements of the fantastical. Phew. It’s a lot, but these creators are up for the challenge.

Greene is a phenomenal artist with a style entirely his own. I knew from his work on Power Man and Iron Fist he was capable of kinetic sequential storytelling, but working in creator-owned comics affords him increased flexibility here, the luxury of flexing his sizable and eclectic design skills on everything from the monster hunting technology to the aesthetic of the monsters themselves. His work is versatile, as interesting when applied to the fantastic as it is to the everyday scene of weekend dancing that opens our story. Colorist Rico Renzi’s palettes also do the always-important work of tone-setting, of lending mood and ambiance to book with horror themes. A story as well written as this one deserves singular art to match, and Greene and Renzi certainly deliver.

I’ve been looking forward to Bitter Root since it was first mentioned after the unceremonious end to Power Man and Iron Fist. It took awhile to get here and it sounds cliche to say, but if this debut issue is any indication, Bitter Root is well worth the wait.

Overall: There have been plenty of monster hunting comics launched this year, but none have been as confident as Bitter Root #1. This story is complex and fearless, steeped in fantastical monster hunting, family dynamics, and systemic injustices. Combine that with the stylishly singular aesthetic of the artwork, and this book is a must-read. 9.5/10

Bitter Root #1
Writers: David F. Walker and Chuck Brown
Artist: Sanford Greene
Colorist: Rico Renzi and Sanford Greene
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: The Unexpected #6 Moves Toward an Early Finale

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The Unexpected #6 is out 11/7.

By Zack Quaintance — Despite plans for additional issues (one of which already had a cover started by Yanick Paquette), The Unexpected will be ending in January with issue number eight, making it the second book (following Immortal Men) from DC’s New Age of Heroes publishing initiative to be concluded. This, obviously, is not ideal, given the initiative started this same year. I’m certainly disappointed. I’ve said this on Twitter before, but I’ll repeat it again: I can see myself years from now talking comics somewhere and insisting that the New Age of Heroes was actually really cool, and it could have even been great if it had all been handled a bit differently.

I won’t go into what my thoughts on that here (track me down in a decade for the full brunt of it), because this is, after all, a review of The Unexpected #6, but I do think the impending finale of the book is a lens this comic should be viewed through. With all that in mind, this issue features more of what I’ve liked so far about this series: big time superheroics (SPOILER: this one features a million trapped souls badassedly erupting from the villainous Synn as he battles Hawkman, thereby tearing the former apart), complex character drama, and a whole lot of swagger. Knowing that there are only two installments left, however, does change my perspective on all that.

Whereas before I’d been viewing this book as a story building towards a permanent team dynamic, it now feels like a mini-series about a particularly intense few days in the lives of our leads. Really, I think that may be for the best. For a few issues now, The Unexpected has shone brightest during combat (which has been all but constant), never having even a few spare moments to clearly establish situations where the heroes of the story could have quiet moments together. Now with the end in sight, it doesn’t have to concern itself with any of that; The Unexpected is free to be a combination of a street fight and far out multiversal Grant Morrison sensibilities, which is an interesting combination, to be sure.

What I liked best about The Unexpected #6, though, was the manifestation of a couple of long-simmering twists I always suspected were coming. To discuss these even further would be to reveal a bit too much about the issue. Here’s hoping the final two installments of this story are brimming with madcap action sequences.

Overall: The Unexpected #6 is yet another continuation of the one large set piece that this book has become. With the end now in sight, the story starts to maybe prematurely wrap things up for its heroes. 8.0/10

The Unexpected #6
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Ronan Cliquet
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Farmhand #5, a Fitting End to a Great First Arc

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Farmhand #5 is out 11/7.

By Bo Stewart — I miss Chew…a lot. With that book (which, by the way, ended in November 2016 after having won two Eisner and two Harvey Awards) writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory created a world that, quite frankly, scratched an itch that I didn’t even know I had. Put simply, Chew was a ridiculous comic—in all the right ways. It was zany yet self-aware, set in a fictional world that had a strict set of rules its narrative followed. It was great, and, as I said, I miss it...a lot.

So, when Rob Guillory’s Farmhand was announced (this time with Guillory writing and drawing), I started to eagerly anticipate that old Chew feeling coming back, or scratching that itch, so to speak. This week’s Farmhand #5 marks the conclusion of the Guillory’s new book’s first act, and I can confidently say he has re-captured the intangible qualities that made Chew really click for me. At the same time, with Farmhand Guillory is telling a bold story in its own right.

To me, the last issue of any first arc is an extremely important one, essentially answering the pivotal question of whether it has legs to go for dozens of issues, or whether it’s just a fun idea with maybe not as much narrative meat on its bones. Five issues into Farmhand, I feel like we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what this story and world have to offer. Really, I can see this narrative going in several different directions, and I’m eager to see which path Guillory decides to take.

Thematically, Farmhand is interested in weighty subject matter such as familial legacy and reaping what you sow. The plot follows the Jenkins Family Farm, which has created a seed that can be used to grow new human body parts. This makes for a funny visual, but moreover this premise is used to ask tough questions about mankind’s scientific progress. Questions such as: were we meant to cross these boundaries? If so, what is the personal cost? It’s poignant stuff, seeing as we now live in a world where 3-D printing vital organs is a reality. Farmhand’s themes are becoming increasingly relevant as our real world scientific progress continues to accelerate, and exploring them through an agricultural lens here is a brilliant stroke of storytelling.

Meanwhile, the book is also interested in how the seeds we sow to get ahead later come to affect our personal relationships just as much as they do our professional lives. In this story, the Jenkins family patriarch, Jed, is so focused on his business that he misses the ill will he’s harvesting (yes, that’s a farm joke) with his own family. His farm comes under threat by shady Russian agents and rival companies, and it only serves to distract Jed further from the growing fractures between himself and his children.

On a visual level, the artistic details that go into Guillory’s pages are impressive. Each one is packed with little jokes and asides that readers could very well miss if they don’t take a second to focus. Something as simple as writing Bro on a jock’s hat is a fun way to give readers information about the characters and world. In this issue alone, we get gems such as Hospitals: a great place to meet your demise, or Newspaper: Yeah, we’re still in print. It’s self-deprecatory, but always in good fun. These details are also more than just quick laughs, contributing much to both the world and the story.

Overall: Farmhand #5 is, like the rest of this first arc, a wildly fun comic. It covers deep thematic ground while never taking itself too seriously. Striking that balance requires skillful storytelling, and I can’t wait to see where Guillory takes us in arc two. 8.5/10

Farmhand #5
Writer: Rob Guillory
Artist: Rob Guillory
Colorist: Taylor Wells
Letterer: Kody Chamberlain
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Bo grinds for the man by day so he can create comics by night. He is the lesser half of the Stewart Brothers writing team and can be found on Twitter and Instagram @stewart_bros

REVIEW: Outer Darkness #1 is a Solid and Charming Debut

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Outer Darkness #1 is out 11/7.

By Zack Quaintance — Space, but if it was haunted. This was clearly the pitch for writer John Layman’s new Image book with artist Afu Chan, Outer Darkness. I don’t want to call this a well-trodden concept, but it’s definitely one we’ve seen, in a number of mediums. It is not, of course, the elevator pitch that determines the ultimate success of a story. No, it’s how the story, characters, pacing, and other elements are carried out. With all this in mind, Outer Darkness is exceedingly well-done.

Let’s talk about the setup and plot: our story opens with our protagonist captaining a cargo vessel through an unmapped necro-storm, as members of his crew succumb to all manner of paranormal possession, despite having five on-board holy men and exorcists (which we are left to infer is common in this world). The hero makes a difficult decision to jettison the ship’s cargo—a move later has him facing jail time—to save the lives of those on his ship, and soon we flash forward weeks to find him at an intergalactic bar.

The real hero’s journey then kicks off in earnest when an old and powerful friend shows up with a call to action: avoid the aforementioned jail time and get his pension/insurance back by agreeing to one last nine-month mission to the farthest reaches of the Sagittarius Quadrant, and beyond. This all adds up to a tight construction for the first issue of a new sci-fi book, giving us readers a clear and orienting idea of this series’ elements, from its world to its characters to its humor and tone.

Simply put, Outer Darkness is solidly-built and charaming from its start, doing the tip-toe first issue necessities of getting across exposition without sacrificing pacing or intrigue. In fact, with the one-two punch this year of Leviathan and Outer Darkness, I think it’s safe to say John Layman has established himself as one of the most adept writers as it pertains to launching fully-formed creator-owned books. With Outer Darkness, Layman and collaborators get first issue basics done so fast and effectively they have time left to flesh out the world, hinting at a deeper personal motivation for the main character while also showing the dark cost of space travel, neither of which are points I’ll reveal here, since I absolutely recommend checking out this comic.

The artwork is also exceedingly strong. Afu Chan borrows from a number of different aesthetics—afro futurism, United States Navy, religious customs—to forge a look for the clothes in this comic that feels novel and new. Chan’s design of space vessels is also strong, keeping things like cargo ships and transports utilitarian, while making the central ship stylish and unique, akin to if Star Trek’s Enterprise had a baby with Sonic the Hedgehog. Chan is quite talented and if this first issue is any indication, he and Layman are a great creative fit.

Overall: A solid and charming debut. In the back matter of the comic, writer John Layman describes Outer Darkness as the distillation of what I love the most. Science fiction, horror and weird shit. Well, I like those things too, so sign me up to journey into space with this one. 9.0/10

Outer Darkness #1
Writer: John Layman
Artist: Afu Chan
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Fearscape #2 Brims with Imposter Syndrome…in a Good Way

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Fearscape #2 is out 11/7.

By Zack Quaintance — Fearscape #1 debuted last month(ish) as a bonafide hit, selling out, necessitating a second printing, and earning copious praise from comic book creators and reviewers (many—if not all—of whom are aspiring creators too) alike. This was, perhaps, unsurprising. Fearscape’s first issue spoke directly to the feeling of yearning to be an inspired creative genius, and, well, falling short. Simply put, us readers had been there. It was painfully relatable emotional territory for the book’s target audience: monthly indie comics folks. That familiar state of mind was then expertly accompanied by a high stakes fantasy quest in another realm (which most indie comics folk also enjoy), and—BOOM!—narrative dynamite.

A first issue as good as Fearscape’s is a blessing and curse, though, reeling in the audience while setting the bar almost impossibly high for a follow up. In other words, some regression is to be expected. The same tricks that felt so surprising in the debut are less effective. There’s a bit of that in Fearscape #2, but the smart initial construction of this book’s tone, plus an equally smart twist at this issue’s end, make for another thoroughly engaging read. And really, I haven’t stopped being impressed yet with the pitch-perfect narrative voice writer Ryan O’Sullivan has created, nor the way he uses it.

To recap: protagonist Henry Henry (perfect name for a writer, the Guy in Your MFA Twitter couldn’t have done better) went to the home of his bed-bound mentor and stole a manuscript to pass off as his own. Before he successfully absconded with the work, he found himself confronted by a ghostly extra-dimensional muse recruiting Earth’s best storyteller to represent mankind in a fantasy realm called the Fearscape, where storytelling ability is needed to stave catastrophe off from afflicting the real world.

The plot is enough to make for compelling comics. Fearscape, however, adds a deeper character layer with the way it portrays its protagonist’s roiling imposter syndrome. Henry Henry constantly overcompensates with his pretentious narrative voice while outwardly acting like a total jackass. You can see why he does and says things, and it makes sense, even if you can’t help but resent him for it. Here’s a great example: an early sequence has Henry Henry brusquely telling his guide, Try to keep up, muse...followed in the next panel by this narration [The asthma attack which immediately followed the prior scene has been omitted for the sake of narrative cohesion.] It’s creative, meta, narratively-effective, and riddled with self-resentment. It’s perfect.

Fearscape continues to read as if O’Sullivan is taking a deep inventory of the worst and ugliest parts of his own motivation to create...then cranking them to 11 and putting them in a comic. You can practically feel the self-loathing (in a good way), especially as Fearscape #2 comes to its conclusion. And it’s this sincerity that separates this story from the hacky work it worries it may become. This book is rich with words and ways of thinking seemingly culled from ghosts of painful undergraduate creative writing workshops. These moments emotions are honest, staggeringly so.

Andre Mutti is also just such a versatile artist, given a chance to really shine in the fantasy landscapes and characters found in this issue. Mutti’s character designs are impressive, but it’s the level of clarity the artist’s storytelling techniques lend to the ending sequence (which has real potential to confuse) that really stand out.  

This second issue has me curious about the future of the book, too. This is certainly not a Fountainhead-esque experiment about the value of individualism and uncompromising work, but there’s definitely a point of view about artistry coming into focus. To me, the real mystery seems to be not how the world will be saved from the Fearscape or who will be the storyteller to save it, but rather what the real life creators have learned about craft and aspirations along the way. And, really, isn’t that what most stories are all about? Anyway, I’m so far lost in self-reflective theories here, I may need a long walk...

Overall: Fearscape #2 builds on one of the year’s best debuts to deliver another adventure in metafiction, one perfectly tailored for an indie comic audience. The protagonist’s imposter syndrome is so ugly and sincere that writerly types can’t help but relate, regardless of how painful it becomes, and there’s real honest beauty in that. 9.0/10

Fearscape #2
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Lettering: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Ice Cream Man #8 Hints at the Point: Happy Lives Aren’t Easy

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Ice Cream Man #8 is out 10/31.

By Zack Quaintance — I was a late-comer to Ice Cream Man. I had a few reasons for hesitating, among them: there are tons of comics these days, the word-of-mouth for the first issue was mixed, and I was unfamiliar with the creators. I, however, absolutely loved the first volume, and Ice Cream Man #6 is now one of my favorite single issues this year.

Even so, I wouldn’t say I’ve figured out what this comic is about. Not entirely. It’s essentially a horror anthology, one in which we haven’t seen the same character twice, other than the titular creepy ice cream man, whose role in stories varies, both in terms of why he’s there and how much we see him. Ice Cream Man #6, which I loved so well, strongly hinted this was a book about nihilism, but, even then, that felt a bit reductive to me. I don’t find nihilism interesting, at least not as the driving force of a story, and yet this book had captured and kept my interest. More than that, it had me recommending it regularly to friends, the highest endorsement.

In Ice Cream Man #8, we finally have some strong clues as to what this book aspires to be about. This is a comic that strives to convey the power of perspective, operating as it does from a starting point that presumes a bleak world before arguing that the central conflict of human life is to overcome bleakness to obtain joy and beauty, regardless of how difficult doing so may be. Just look at this issue.

Like the other installments in this series, the art is fantastic, drawn by Martin Morazzo in a style evocative of greats like Frank Quitely, Geof Darrow, other masters of wavy detail. Morazzo’s work on Ice Cream Man has real range and this issue is no exception. He expertly renders the story’s central characters—paramedics abusing medication and undergoing a hallucinatory crisis—as they careen through a sleepy suburban town erupting in barely-noticed chaos, with homes on fire, people covered in worms, and a clown with a gunshot to his temple. As this story progresses, so does the chaos, culminating in anthropomorphic insect designs in a well-lit diner. It’s stunning stuff.

W. Maxwell Prince, meanwhile, compliments these visuals well with dialogue and narration. Talk between the paramedics is conversational, funny and authentic, yet steeped in existential panic and questions about what it’s all about (both life and this comic), as well as about human nature. The narration, however, is the real star, well-written, powerful, concise, featuring prickly lines like: We’ll all connected—through death, through suffering. Through our fleeting, ephemeral moments of joy; as well as a guiding motif about dark voices (which I read as thoughts, be they fear, anger, or mundanity). The key bit of writing, the one I believe speaks to Prince and Morazzo’s goals for this book, comes at the end, when the gruesome facade relents for a moment and the narrator tells us: The real song’s hard to hear—because good things take work.

“Ice Cream Man #8
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99”

This would, perhaps, be an obvious point to make in a first issue, but after eight chapters of violence, body horror, despair, and dark Twilight Zone-esque concepts, it rings true and cathartic. This isn’t a book that believes we’re doomed. No. This comic is built on the idea that a well-lived life requires effort, hard work, and deliberate hope. I’m still learning like anyone, but these are ideas I find inspiring.

Overall: Another excellent chapter in this anthology horror story, one that goes deeper into the abstruse philosophies hinted at by prior issues. Simply put, few books on the stands today match the craftsmanship and dogma in a single issue of Ice Cream Man. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Man-Eaters #2 Finds Compelling Character Traits in Quiet Moments

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Man-Eaters #2 is out 10/31.

By Zack Quaintance — The inside cover of this comic sports an actual magazine ad, the sort you might see in a magazine like, uh, whatever magazine people still read these days (I really couldn’t think of one...is Time still a thing?). Look closer, though, and you’ll notice the ad is a public service announcement that’s actually set in the world of Man-Eaters, wherein a mutation in humans is causing women to turn into were-cats when they menstrate.

She’s your little princess today, but will she be a monster tomorrow? The add asks, adding: 98% of adolescent females are infected with Toxoplasmosis X. Is your daughter one of them? Get her tested. It’s the law. And below is an actual photo of a young girl playing with a cat, followed by a fine print info box describing the symptoms of the comic’s central disease. It’s a clever way for a book to open, especially one that follows up on the provocative satirical premise laid out by Man-Eaters #1 as well as this comic does.

I, obviously, think this sort of narrative device is effective, or I wouldn’t have gone into such detail describing it, and that’s a good thing, because Man-Eaters #2 uses devices similar to this one often, ranging from intricate tampon instruction pages to lists to quick (and very funny) jump-cut panels that show the gushing blood elevator from The Shining. Writer Chelsea Cain and artist Kate Niemczyk fearlessly interweave these illustrative visuals in with the usual graphic sequential storytelling found comics, using them to both impart info and to continue to set a tone for this book.

“Man-Eaters #2
Writer: Chelsea Cain
Penciler & Inker: Kate Niemczyk
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Joe Caramagna”

This clever use of visuals was everywhere in the first issue, and, indeed, it’s nice to see its use carry over to the second installment. Man-Eaters #2 also remedies an issue I had with the debut of this series. With its premise firmly established, it gets about the business of crafting and interesting and compelling narrative in a way that vests us in our central characters, accomplishing that latter bit mainly by showing us glimpsed of the relatable dynamic between our hero Maude’s divorced parents. There’s a scene with the three of them watching television on the couch. It’s maybe the most understated scene in this entire comic, but, for my money, it also happens to do the most storytelling work. Add on an intriguing (if slightly predictable) cliffhanger twist, and it all adds up to a second issue that has me excited for the future of this comic.

Overall: Man-Eaters #2 continues the clever use of visuals found in its predecessor, while also going into the standard trappings of a good story, mainly character development and a progressing narrative. Cain and Niemczyk are both super-talented storytellers, and they seem in full control of their powers here. 9.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

REVIEW: Mood and Tension Still Reign in the WYTCHES: BAD EGG HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

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Wytches: Bad Egg Halloween Special is out 10/31.

Bo Stewart — Horror comics are tough to create. Film and television in the genre can use sound to build tension and establish mood, but comics have to rely on purely visual tools to earn their scares. The best graphic sequential horror stories are those that excel at creating an eerie atmosphere and a prevailing sense of unease this way. Few establish the desired sort of ominous mood better than Scott Snyder and Jock’s critically-acclaimed Wytches franchise.

While reading this week’s Wytches: Bad Egg Halloween Special one shot, I kept having this thought: Man…I’ve really missed Wytches. The first volume of this book was an incredibly strong story, so much so that the sporadic teases of a second volume have only deepened the void this comic leaves in my reading pile when it’s not on the shelves. The Bad Egg: Halloween Special, however, goes a long way toward satiating my impatience, and at a whopping 80 pages, I suspect the special will be enough to tide me over until the eventual release of volume 2. I wouldn’t consider the special required reading for Wytches fans, not exactly, but it does flesh out the world while also laying some groundwork for the second volume in a really interesting way.

The Special exists primarily to introduce us to Sebastian Clay. Snyder promises that Seb will be a key player in the events to come, and I enjoyed spending time with him here, finding him to be a really interesting protagonist in his own right. Seb just wants a normal standard issue life, as he puts it. Everything changes, though, when a friend’s dad tries to abduct Seb and feed him to a Wytch.

After this defining event, Seb has to focus on a larger mission that prevents him from enjoying the pleasures of childhood. He is forbidden from making real friendships, including one with his neighbor Jackson. The stakes are immediately upped when it’s revealed that Seb is going to kill Jackson and his whole family. The story kicks into high gear thereafter and begged to be finished in a single sitting.

Essentially, I think this special is a reminder that Snyder can still excel in storytelling made rich by smaller human moments. According to Snyder himself, Wytches was his most personal work to date, and that intimacy carries over into this special. It really makes me wish we would see more of this intimacy in his DC work, too.

“Wytches: Bad Egg Halloween Special
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jock
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Clem Robins
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $7.99”

Back to my thought about mood in horror comics…yeah, Wytches has possibly the most distinct mood of any comic out there. Jock brings his A game, particularly when it comes to body language. Everything looks right on the surface, but a closer examination finds most pages have something a little off. It’s a killer way to build mood and atmosphere. Matt Hollingsworth’s coloring is also spectacular. There’s simply nothing like it. The random splotches feel out of place, letting us know something isn’t quite right in cool, subtle ways.

Overall: Wytches: Bad Egg Halloween Special is the perfect Halloween treat. It’s also the perfect antidote for the long-term absence of one of the most spectacular horror stories in all of comics. 9.5/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Bo grinds for the man by day so he can create comics by night. He is the lesser half of the Stewart Brothers writing team and can be found on Twitter and Instagram@stewart_bros

REVIEW: Brubaker and Phillips’ My HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a Psychedelic Bonnie & Clyde

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By Taylor Pechter —  When it comes to crime comics, two names are basically synonymous with modern works in the genre: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Throughout the last decade of their fruitful collaboration, the duo has made some of the most acclaimed series in all of comics, from the down and dirty family drama of Criminal, to the Lovecraftian horror history lesson that is Fatale, to their most recent monthly series Kill or Be Killed, a nuanced dive into mental illness.

Brubaker and Phillips’  latest creation is the original graphic novel My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, wherein they create a story that involves romance, the meaning of life, and a thorough shattering of the status quo. This is the first time the pair has produced a complete work in the original graphic novel format, and so I think it’s helpful to break it down into individual qualities, starting with the writing and the plot.

Warning Spoilers: The story in My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies follows a woman named Ellie who is sent to a rehab facility by her uncle...or so she believes. In the early pages, readers get Ellie’s view of the world, as well as her thoughts on being a titular junkie. During a therapy session Ellie exclaims, Why do we automatically think getting clean is a great thing? What if drugs help you find the thing that makes you special?

Here in lies Ellie’s arc, during which she recalls past experiences with her mother, who was herself a junkie. Not only that, but Ellie’s story also touches thematically on some of the most famous singers—Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin—all of whom were junkies and eventually succumbed to their addictions. However, in Ellie’s mind they are the heroes of her story. Through them she learned that junkie carries a negative connotation, even though she believes it should really carry a positive one. Her logic goes: these famous musicians made memorable music while also high on something, be it heroin, cocaine, or speed. Essentially, Ellie sees being a junkie as breaking the status quo of normal life. Doctor Patti, however, obviously thinks the opposite. She thinks that her patient Ellie has convinced herself of this in order to feel special, making her just like any other person in the facility.

Eventually, readers are also introduced to Skip, another patient at the hospital. As time goes on, he grows closer to Ellie and they form a sort of partnership. It starts with sneaking out to take a puff at night and evolves into eventually planning escape. It is during this escape that Skip and Ellie grow closer. They move from house to house, forging a bond, and so romance blossoms. With romance, their dependence on drugs also grows. It is then Ellie monologues, I mean, what young lovers don’t secretly want this? To be bandits on some lost highway… Running until it all burns down?

It is not just through her dependence on drugs, but also her love of Skip, that the memories of her mother and the thrill of the chase bring Ellie’s life full circle. As the story draws to a close, Ellie is walking on a beach, much like we saw her at the beginning of the story. There, she reminisces about the events that have transpired. It is through her ending monologue that she exclaims that life is supposed to be like a clouded memory, and that the things you really remember are the things that are most important. It is in fact the love that others give you that makes life worth living.

In terms of the artwork, along with Brubaker’s detailed script comes, as always, Sean Phillips artwork. Phillips is a master of emotion, an artist who is able to capture the happiness, sadness, excitement, and boredom of each of the characters he renders into life. Not only that, Phillips use of body language also adds an extra layer of realism. This, however, has basically become standard within Brubaker/Phillips works. So much so, that we’re probably all taking how great these comics look for granted. Phillips work really has been that good for that long.

What is new with this most recent Brubaker/Phillips work is the colorist. Joining Phillips on coloring duties is his own son, Jacob. Jacob replaces Elizabeth Breitweiser, whose colors have often paired with Brubakers drawing of late. Jacob Phillips splotchy color palette of bright oranges, pinks, and blues really fits this particular story well, adding a psychedelic feel to the proceedings. The story also features many flashbacks throughout, detailing Ellie’s childhood, and Jacob Phillips lends them all a beautiful monochromatic style evocative of times gone by. Breitweiser is a great colorist, as is another past Phillips collaborator Val Staples, but Jacob Phillips work compliments his father’s in a way that has me hopeful they’ll continue to collaborate in the future.

Overall: With My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips craft a beautiful story of a woman trying to find her place in the world. This original graphic novel format adds extra weight to their story, too. With a detailed script and luscious artwork, this work is likely to rank up there with some of the duo’s best stories. It’s a solid offering from today’s masters of the crime comic, one to tide their fans over until the return of Criminal in January. 8.5/10

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $16.99

Taylor Pechter is a passionate comic book fan and nerd. Find him on Twitter @TheInspecter.

REVIEW: The Lodger #1 Sees the Laphams Do Small-Town American Darkness Via Travel Blogging and Crime Noir

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The Lodger #1 is out 10/24.

By Zack Quaintance — Comics can seem infinite. The personal tastes and reading histories that belong to fans of this medium are as varied as any I’ve yet encountered. Both film and literature have canons, bodies of work widely considered to be the most important or influential. These are, essentially, lists of works that all serious fans of those mediums should aspire to experience. Comics, however, doesn’t have that.

Now to get to my point: if it did, my sense is that David and Maria Lapham’s long-running crime noir book Stray Bullets would without question be part of any comic book canon. Furthermore, this is all a long-winded way to establish that I, in fact, have not yet read it (although, now that I’ve officially finished Sandman, maybe Stray Bullets should be next). So, I can’t talk or write intelligently about how their newest comic, The Lodger, fits into their body of work. Consider this intro a disclaimer.

What I can say/writer, however, is that I found this book immensely intriguing, a mysterious and well-crafted introductory issue that works in equal parts to establish a set of thematic interest (small-town American darkness, crime noir, travel blogging, drifting) and a number of questions (what the holy hell is going on and who exactly are our two main characters?). What is perhaps most consequential and worthy of discussion in this comic is its framing device.

This is my first experience actually reading the Laphams’ work, after hearing it discussed often in laudatory tones, and I found it to be as literary as most of the works folks tend to casually canonize. The framing device sees them writing a travel blog. It’s heavy on prose, which is always a dicey proposition for writers in the graphic medium. I find that often times prose-heavy comics are bloated, like the writer is so thrilled to have a little extra space that they lose their capacity for self-editing; that they forget how to be concise. Not so in The Lodger.  

This framing advice reads like a first-person short story, the sort that fills readers in on details and also makes ample use of unreliable narration through the lens of whoever is talking. The Laphams go on to make expert use of the comic book medium, tying the visuals abstractly into said narration in a way that enhances the puzzling nature of this entire story. Simply put, this is the sort of comic made exclusively for comics, the work of veteran creators bent on exploring some of the graphic sequential mediums untapped potential. It’s an ambitious book, one that deftly completes a high-wire act that requires withholding crucial information without disorienting its readers. It’s complex stuff, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Overall: Along with Euthanauts and House Amok, The Lodger is part of the Black Crown imprint’s second wave of titles, and boy is it something to behold. These are complex comic books for smart readers, and I can’t recommend them all enough. 9.0/10

The Lodger #1
Writer: David and Maria Lapham
Artist: David Lapham
Publisher: IDW’s Black Crown Imprint
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.